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It has taken us a while to check out Budge Brothers -- a brewery located just off East Sprague -- but we finally got around to giving Hop Train IPA a try. It's not a bad beer by any means, but also not really quite our thing. What do we put in thing? Let's have a look, shall we?

The Hop Train is a hoppy beer. It has a hoppy color, it has a hoppy nose, it has a hoppy flavor. It even has a hoppy name, but you already knew that. There's nothing wrong with hops, of course; we like hops. Hop Train's problem is that there is preciously little else going on other than the hops. And the lack of a flanking flavor makes this not our proverbial thing.

That is all too bad, really, as Hop Train could have been quite good if there was something else there. Granted, you should pick up on some citrus if you close your eyes and concentrate deeply, but it's still somewhat of an afterthought.

In that sense Hop Train is not our favorite IPA, but that's not to say it's a horrible beer. It does make us curious to check out Budge Brothers's other brews. This one, though, is a bit too much about the hops for our liking, and at 8% ABV it's hard to find a follow-up beer that won't be overpowered by that flavor.